Book Review · 100 words
A blockbuster, near-future science fiction thriller, S.L. Huang's Zero Sum Game introduces a math-genius mercenary who finds herself being manipulated by someone possessing unimaginable power... Ridiculously campy fun. Combat mathematician uses her smarts - and her guns - to chase baddies throughout America. Bombs, vector calculus, and hard-boiled detectives. Similar to The Chemical Detective …
Continue reading →Book Review NaBloPoMo · 200 words
The internet isn't the first technology to alter how we communicate, but it is making our language change faster and in more interesting ways than ever before. Linguistically inventive niche online communities spread slang and jargon exponentially faster than in the days when new dialects were constrained by physical space. What's more, social media provides a fascinating laboratory for…
Continue reading →Book Review NaBloPoMo · 150 words
Dr Jaq Silver. Skier, scientist, international jet-setter, explosives expert. She blows things up to keep people safe. Working on avalanche control in Slovenia, Jaq stumbles across a problem with a consignment of explosives. After raising a complaint with the supplier, a multinational chemical company, her evidence disappears and she is framed for murder. Jaq must find the key to the mystery.…
Continue reading →Book Review NaBloPoMo · 250 words
Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from Fleet Street, Knightsbridge, Wolverhampton, Sweden and Wales. They wrote ballads, ran coffee houses, lived on country estates, they breathed ink-dust from printing presses and escaped people-traffickers. What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888. Why do we…
Continue reading →Book Review · 250 words
Intrigue is swirling around Lyra once more. Her daemon Pantalaimon is witness to a brutal murder, and the dying man entrusts them with secrets that carry echoes from their past. They learn of a city haunted by daemons, of a desert said to hold the secret of Dust. Powerful forces are about to throw Lyra and Malcolm together once again. And the dangers they face will challenge everything they…
Continue reading →Book Review hacking politics · 300 words
Edward Snowden, the man who risked everything to expose the US government’s system of mass surveillance, reveals for the first time the story of his life, including how he helped to build that system and what motivated him to try to bring it down. I'm a civil servant in the UK. Luckily, I suppose, I don't often have access to TOP SECRET information. I suppose I could leak the canteen's lunch m…
Continue reading →Book Review hacking · 200 words
The Netherlands is a world leader in responsible disclosure. The Dutch like to resolve conflicts through a process of general consultation: the famous ‘polder model’. In this book, we hear from the hackers, system owners, IT specialists, managers, journalists, politicians and lawyers who have been key players in a number of prominent disclosures. Their stories offer a glimpse into the mys…
Continue reading →Book Review · 150 words
It is 1932, and the losses of the First World War are still keenly felt. Violet Speedwell, mourning for both her fiancé and her brother and regarded by society as a ‘surplus woman’ unlikely to marry, resolves to escape her suffocating mother and strike out alone. I normally love Tracy Chevalier's books. But this was the first one which left me cold. It was just so... drab. The politics felt t…
Continue reading →Book Review · 200 words
Queer Privacy is a collection of essays about community, family, coming out, dating, domestic violence, activism, sex work and suicide. We will talk about problems, we won't always have solutions, and not all the stories have happy endings. After all, this is real life and we are building it together - one step at a time. How do you design an app which protects privacy? Yes, yes, I know "your…
Continue reading →Book Review Mary Robinette Kowal Sci Fi · 200 words
The Fated Sky looks forward to 1961, when mankind is well-established on the moon and looking forward to its next step: journeying to, and eventually colonizing, Mars. Of course, the noted Lady Astronaut Elma York would like to go, but could the International Aerospace Coalition ever stand the thought of putting a woman on such a potentially dangerous mission? I rushed to buy this book the…
Continue reading →Book Review max berry · 200 words
The world is run by American corporations; there are no taxes; employees take the last names of the companies they work for; the Police and the NRA are publicly-traded security firms; the government can only investigate crimes it can bill for. Billy NRA is finding out that life in a private army isn't all snappy uniforms & code names. Jennifer Government, a legendary agent with a barcode…
Continue reading →Book Review feminism · 200 words
Discover the shocking gender bias that affects our everyday lives. Imagine a world where your phone is too big for your hand, where your doctor prescribes a drug that is wrong for your body, where in a car accident you are 47% more likely to be seriously injured, where every week the countless hours of work you do are not recognised or valued. If any of this sounds familiar, chances are that…
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